Reviewed by David Faulkner

Timing, as the comedians say, is everything. I came home from sitting in on a church home group where some of our older saints closed the devotional element of the meeting with a hymn from a Bryn Terfel CD to find Gillian Adams' debut in a package on the doorstep. She would fit a similar market. Adams has sung in church choirs all her life in her native Northern Ireland, and she makes her living as a wedding singer. The selections on this recording are dominated by traditional evangelical hymns - so much so that before I either listened to the CD or researched her, I expected it to be southern gospel. But no, she is a British soprano singing to an accompaniment of strings and drums. One would have to say that the vibrato is present too regularly in her voice for this reviewer's comfort, and that can grate, but that is not to deny her abilities. Many of my elderly Christian friends will happily cope with that, but younger friends will find the whole approach hackneyed. It's a matter of culture in the end.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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